Pages

30 Sep 2011

Things I've learned over my first week in London

I've been living in the beautiful and very british city of London for a week now. I've settled in my teeny tiny room quickly, it's now all pretty, I'll post some pictures soon. This week was Freshers (still is actually), so I got to meet lots of people and fully embraced the day-to-day life of an average British 18YO. Here's what I've learnt so far:

- Tea is both a drink and a meal. Tea the drink can be drunk at pretty much every hour of the day, and tea the drink is just what you need after a long evening of partying to make you sleepy and help you fight hangover. Tea the meal is eaten from 6:30 at its earliest to late at night (but that might be because we're students and therefore have a terrible eating schedule.)
- Alcohol is expensive, and English people are really strict on the age limit. That means, going back 3 years and having to send someone to the store to get me drinks! Also, not being able to go to the SU pub/club.
- London never sleeps. This city is never silent. I live next to a pub backyard, which means that I can hear people talking from noon to 1am, then there's the noise of people talking in my flat, or in the flat next door, or in the other blocks, or down on the green. There's also the constant roar of cars going by, rythmed by police cars and ambulances' alarms freaking me out every half hour. One would think the whole Lewisham population would be dead by now, considering how many people already called the cops these last days.
- This is something I've learnt AGAIN but no one else seems to have understood quite properly yet: rainy-cloudy-cold-foggy London is a MYTH. I mean-- don't get me wrong, it can be rainy-cloud-cold-foggy sometimes, but it can also be BLAZING HOT. Heat wave on London, yay, awesome. Feel the sarcasm.
- Ask an English if he can speak French, 95% of the time he'll answer you 'un petit peu'. It seems it's the only phrase that they feel confident about here. Also, I only got 'voulez-vous coucher avec moi' once, which I feel is quite a good score.
- YOU CAN'T FIND TEA INFUSER BALLS AT FREAKING SAINSBURY'S!!! Come on people, we're in England! I had to ask my mom to send me one from France! I just can't believe it.

That's all for now, kids! Gotta go back to doing nothing till it's time to drink ;)